{"product_id":"2940013745292","title":"The Gap in the Curtain","description":"As I took my place at the dinner-table I realised that I was not\u003cbr\u003ethe only tired mortal in Lady Flambard's Whitsuntide party.  Mayot,\u003cbr\u003ewho sat opposite me, had dark pouches under his eyes and that\u003cbr\u003eunwholesome high complexion which in a certain type of physique\u003cbr\u003emeans that the arteries are working badly.  I knew that he had been\u003cbr\u003ehaving a heavy time in the House of Commons over the Committee\u003cbr\u003estage of his Factory Bill.  Charles Ottery, who generally keeps\u003cbr\u003ehimself fit with fives and tennis, and has still the figure of an\u003cbr\u003eathletic schoolboy, seemed nervous and out of sorts, and scarcely\u003cbr\u003elistened to his companion's chatter.  Our hostess had her midseason\u003cbr\u003elook; her small delicate features were as sharp as a pin, and her\u003cbr\u003eblue eyes were drained of colour.  But it was Arnold Tavanger\u003cbr\u003efarther down the table who held my attention.  His heavy, sagacious\u003cbr\u003eface was a dead mask of exhaustion.  He looked done to the world,\u003cbr\u003eand likely to fall asleep over his soup.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was a comfort to me to see others in the same case, for I was\u003cbr\u003efeeling pretty near the end of my tether.  Ever since Easter I had\u003cbr\u003ebeen overworked out of all reason.  There was a batch of important\u003cbr\u003eDominion appeals before the Judicial Committee, in every one of\u003cbr\u003ewhich I was engaged, and I had some heavy cases in the Commercial\u003cbr\u003eCourt.  Of the two juniors who did most of my \"devilling\" one had a\u003cbr\u003ebig patent-law action of his own, and the other was in a nursing-\u003cbr\u003ehome with appendicitis.  To make matters worse, I was chairman of a\u003cbr\u003eRoyal Commission which was about to issue its findings, and had had\u003cbr\u003eto rewrite most of the report with my own hand, and I had been\u003cbr\u003esitting as a one-man Commission in a troublesome dispute in the\u003cbr\u003eshipbuilding trade.  Also I was expected to be pretty regularly in\u003cbr\u003ethe House of Commons to deal with the legal side of Mayot's\u003cbr\u003eprecious Bill, and the sittings had often stretched far into the\u003cbr\u003enext morning.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere is something about a barrister's spells of overwork which\u003cbr\u003emakes them different in kind from those of other callings.  His\u003cbr\u003eduties are specific as to time and place.  He must be in court at a\u003cbr\u003ecertain hour.  He must be ready to put, or to reply to, an argument\u003cbr\u003ewhen he is called upon; he can postpone or rearrange his work only\u003cbr\u003ewithin the narrowest limits.  He is a cog in an inexorable machine,\u003cbr\u003eand must revolve with the rest of it.  For myself I usually enter\u003cbr\u003eupon a period of extreme busyness with a certain lift of spirit,\u003cbr\u003efor there is a sporting interest in not being able to see your way\u003cbr\u003ethrough your work.  But presently this goes, and I get into a mood\u003cbr\u003eof nervous irritation.  It is easy enough to be a carthorse, and it\u003cbr\u003eis easy enough to be a racehorse, but it is difficult to be a\u003cbr\u003ecarthorse which is constantly being asked to take Grand National\u003cbr\u003efences.  One has to rise to hazards, but with each the take-off\u003cbr\u003egets worse and the energy feebler.  So at the close of such a spell\u003cbr\u003eI am in a wretched condition of soul and body--weary, but without\u003cbr\u003epower to rest, and with a mind so stale that it sees no light or\u003cbr\u003ecolour in anything.  Even the end of the drudgery brings no\u003cbr\u003estimulus.  I feel that my form has been getting steadily poorer,\u003cbr\u003eand that virtue has gone out of me which I may never recapture.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI had been in two minds about accepting Sally Flambard's\u003cbr\u003einvitation.  She is my very good friend, but her parties are rather\u003cbr\u003elike a table d'hôte.  Her interests are multitudinous, and all are\u003cbr\u003ereflected in her hospitality, so that a procession goes through her\u003cbr\u003ehouse which looks like a rehearsal for the Judgement Day.\u003cbr\u003ePolitics, religion, philanthropy, letters, science, art and the\u003cbr\u003emost brainless fashion--she takes them all to her capacious heart.\u003cbr\u003eShe is an innocent lion-hunter, too, and any man or woman who\u003cbr\u003efigures for the moment in the Press will be a guest at Flambard.\u003cbr\u003eAnd she drives her team, for all are put through their paces.\u003cbr\u003eSally makes her guests work for their entertainment.  In her own\u003cbr\u003eway she is a kind of genius, and what Americans call a wonderful\u003cbr\u003e\"mixer.\"  Everyone has got to testify, and I have seen her make a\u003cbr\u003ebishop discourse on Church union, and a mathematician on hyper-\u003cbr\u003espace to an audience which heard of the topics for the first time.\u003cbr\u003eThe talk is apt to be a little like a magazine page in a popular\u003cbr\u003enewspaper--very good fun, if you are feeling up to it, but not\u003cbr\u003equite the thing for a rest-cure.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47162204750064,"sku":"2940013745292","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013745292_p0.jpg?v=1763589686","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013745292","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}